Cure Me
by Eternity Crystal
Summary: In what way, in what universe, would Nightmare ever, ever go to a doctor at a hospital? None, right? Unless, of course, that doctor happened to be Alice.


Alice Liddell sighed heavily as she exited the hospital after a long day's work. She had only started working at Tower Hospital a couple weeks prior as a newly minted doctor, and she enjoyed the work, truly. But that day was just incredibly hard, and time seemed to drag. As all jobs that dealt with people, there were difficult and rude patients, patients who thought they knew everything, coworkers that tried to break ethic rules – and as a result got a clipboard slap to the back of the head and reported.

Glad to be done with work, Alice slipped into her car and headed toward her apartment nearby, ready to just go to bed.

There were cats all over the place. On the couch, on the bookshelves, on the filing cabinets, and twisting around Nightmare Gottschalk's legs. A few cats were one thing, twelve were wholly another. He knew that his assistant was weak to animals, but this was raging out of control. Nightmare really liked cats, that much was fact, but they couldn't keep bringing them in off the street! As Nightmare peeked out of the corner of his eye, the raptured look on Gray Ringmarc's face told Nightmare that he wouldn't hear a word he would say.

Letting out a heavy breath, Nightmare sat back in his chair, tossing his pen onto his desk, letting it roll to the edge. He stared up at the ceiling with his good eye, wishing he were asleep, and that the mountain of never-ending paperwork would somehow vanish. An alert tone all too familiar to the CEO of Clover Empire went off, and Nightmare carefully got out of his chair to start sneaking towards the exit of his office.

At the sound of that evil – according to Nightmare – alert, Gray reluctantly put the cat in his arms down. After cooing to it for a moment, he finally addressed his boss, whose hand was inches from reaching the knob on the door.

"It's time to go to the hospital, sir."

The muscles in Nightmare's back bunched, tensing for a moment. A second of silence passed before Nightmare took the plunge and flung the door to his office open and raced down the hallway. Gray took off like a shot and had grabbed the back of his boss' collar in no time flat.

"No! I won't go! I hate hospitals!" Nightmare screeched like a child throwing a tantrum.

"You will get better if you go, sir."

"Lies! Injections hurt, and the medicine is incredibly bitter! How could that possibly make me better?!"

The wailing resounded through the hallways as Nightmare kicked and screamed. None of the employees batted an eyelash nor bothered to help as their CEO was dragged through the building and out of the doors.

"Doctor Liddell."

Alice turned to face the nurse assigned to her, who had addressed her hesitantly. She smiled to put the poor woman at ease. "What is it?"

"Well, your next patient is here, but they are being extremely difficult. And you've said before to fetch you before we call anyone else…"

Alice had already walked off before the woman could finish, her strides long and face determined. She didn't even bother to ask who that patient was. Hopefully she could calm the patient down before security had to get involved. The poor nurse had to jog to keep up with her.

The moment Alice got into the receiving room, her heart lurched and her mind tossed her back several years. It felt like an eternity as she stared at the silver haired man kicking up a ruckus she instantly recognized. They had finally crossed paths. Now she could…

Well, for the time being, she needed to get him to stop causing a scene.

"Gottschalk," she barked.

That sharp reprimand was nostalgic to Nightmare, though the voice was more mature sounding than he remembered. Looking over his shoulder to make sure, he confirmed it. Standing there with an air of irritated authority in a white lab coat, was a woman reminiscent of a girl he had met as a young boy. Alice Liddell. Her long, golden brown hair was swept back into a neat ponytail, her blue-green eyes held a myriad of emotions – the dominant one disapproval – and her hands on her hips, a sure sign of a lecture coming on.

Nightmare turned fully towards her as she strode towards him, arms swinging wide. He stared down at her for a full moment, only vaguely aware of Gray glancing between the two of them in cautious confusion. He opened his mouth to say something, but Alice cut him off with a sickly sweet smile on her face.

"I'm here to fetch you for your appointment, Mr. Gottschalk. Now, if you'll come this way, please," her equally syrupy voice barely contained the threat hiding underneath the surface.

_You'll follow me away from all these witnesses or so help me, I will tear you apart, limb from limb,_ is the message Nightmare got from Alice's face alone. Knowing that there was no way to argue when she got like this, Nightmare sighed and dragged his feet after Alice. Gray and all the other hospital staff stared at the sight in awe. Gray quickly recovered and fell into step behind Nightmare.

"Sir, you know this doctor?" Gray whispered to Nightmare, surprise coloring his tone. Gray knew that she was new to the hospital, which is why Gray made an appointment with her; hoping that a new doctor would help Nightmare to be more receptive. What Gray had witnessed was more than just…being receptive, it was almost like they had history together.

Nightmare glanced back at Gray, a wry smile struggling across his face. "You could say that. It's a long story."

Finally arriving at an empty room designated to Alice, she smiled falsely sweet still as she lifted an arm to indicate for them to enter. Alice entered last, shut the door, and locked it. Upon turning around again, her demeanor changed to reveal the irritated beast underneath.

"Okay, Nightmare, I _know_ you don't like hospitals, but why on earth do you have to throw a tantrum like a seven-year-old?" Alice demanded, arms folded across her chest with a clipboard dangling from her hand. In Nightmare's eyes, it looked like a weapon ready to be used at the slightest inconvenient answer.

Now, he could've been reading too much into it, but Nightmare knew that seven was an odd number to toss out there. Most people would've said two or ten or a nice even number. The fact was that the last time Nightmare had seen and spoken with Alice had been when they were seven. He had a feeling that Alice was well aware of that, and a smug grin had begun creeping across his face before he knew it.

Alice's suspicious expression at the look on his face caused him to snap back to reality. Gray, however, addressed Alice before Nightmare could get so much as a word out.

"Doctor, if we could get to the matter at hand, I would be much obliged."

Alice's intimidating demeanor seemed to deflate at that.

"You're right, I apologize for my behavior. It was most unprofessional."

"Not at all, I must apologize on behalf of my employer for making a ruckus in the hospital."

"Well, nothing was broken, so everything's fine," Alice said as she skimmed through the papers on her clipboard. When she looked back up, her smile was polite and professional. "You must be Nigh – Mr. Gottschalk's assistant."

"Ah, yes. Gray Ringmarc, pleasure to meet you, Doctor Liddell."

After a brief handshake, and Nightmare feeling hugely ignored, Alice finally got to the matter at hand. Several minutes went by as Alice checked on Nightmare's condition with expert hands and questions. Nightmare sulked at the fact that Alice was giving him no time to talk about anything other than his health. He knew it was to be expected, but this was their first meeting since they were children! She could have acted a _little_ happier to see him, completely glossing over the fact that he had made a huge scene at her workplace.

"Well, for better or worse, it looks like your condition hasn't changed much at all since you lasted visited with your last doctor. There's a medication I can prescribe for you that won't taste as bitter if you mix it into food. I can't guarantee you won't taste it, but the food should mask the taste a lot."

Gray seemed in high spirits as he requested Alice for a prescription, but Nightmare, on the other hand, was appalled. He jumped to his feet and began protesting.

"No way! If I'm going to taste that bitter medicine, there's no way I'm taking it! And if it's mixed into food, I'll _die_."

"Sir –"

"No!"

"Look, Nightmare. I can't do my job if you are unwilling to even try," Alice addressed him, lapsing into the informal by what looked like habit, her voice quiet but hard.

Nightmare, about to protest some more, looked straight into her blue-green eyes and saw that unwavering resolution in her eyes that he had seen all those many years ago. The words caught in his throat. He knew why she was doing this, all of this, and he couldn't complain back to her. It was so unfair! Well, they can pick up the medicine, but that still didn't mean he had to take it.

"Ugh, fine," he whined.

Gray, beaming with a new found respect for Alice, gratefully accepted the scripts and guided Nightmare out of the room. As Nightmare, slumped in defeat, turned his head back to glance over at Alice one more time, he caught her eyes again. What he saw there surprised him; it almost looked like regret, but it was gone in an instant, replaced by her resolve.


End file.
